Suspicious Giant

Slowly waking up, the sleepy Camellia could hear the soft crackles of a fire as well as something warm and slightly heavy laying atop her like a blanket.

'Where? WHATS?!

Remembering she was in the wild, Camellia thought something along the lines of}

If you wake up in a cold cave and you have something warm and heavy on top of you chances are it's a beast.}

You know, only slightly important.

However, after trying to get up she could only manage to move her neck. She could lift her head enough to confirm it wasn't an animal but a blanket instead, but that only raised more questions.

'Alright, I should assess everything quickly then think of what the best plan of action is.'}

1. Someone must have moved me. Reason being}

-Campfire

-Blanket

-Monkey beast is across the cave

2. I'm injured, or at least extremely exhausted. Point is, I'm not moving any time soon. It's hard enough to keep my eyes open and raise my head, let along escaping and running.

3. My life isn't in immediate danger}

-They would have killed me by now if they wanted to.

4. They want something from me}

-In a world this dangerous... no even on earth, nothing was free. People only helped others if it benefited them.

-I'm cute and could probably be sold as a highly priced 'goods'

Considering all of this information... I'm in a very bad spot. Regardless of the consequences, I have to wait for the person or group to come back and greet them. Which sadly means I only have roughly three options to choose from.}

1. Act cute and try to win them over

+They might spoil me

+Might bring me back to their village

-If they are slave traders I'm doomed

2. Say nothing and act oblivious

+They might pity me

-They might see me as a nuisance

-Slave trader=doomed

3. Play dead and hope they don't check my vitals

+Might just leave me alone

+Might take care of me until I'm actually recovered

-Nuisance

-Might kill me on sight if they deem me useless

Option 1. is probably my best option, but I can always try to mix some options together. Either way I will have to act like a cute child...

"Of course..."

"Awake are you?"

A loud and raspy voice suddenly spoke coming from the cave entrance. It had a slightly gentle tone to it, but Camellia immediately ignored that fact due to not only the rest of his voice being so dominating... but because Mona also had that same gentle tone to her voice...

'Dammit! When did he get there?! No, calm down. If you don't focus here you might get tortured for the rest of your life! I've already blown my cover so #3 is out of the question, so for now I'll go with #2, Act clueless!'

Without saying another word the giant man walked towards the almost unconscious Camellia and puts the back of three fingers on her head. Although that's all it took to cover her head...

'HUGE!!'

I mean seriously, what did they feed you?! I'd almost be up to your waist even if you were laying on your side!'

The man was roughly 195 centimeters tall while the little loli was only about 150! He had a strong looking shoulder width, huge hands and a thick chest which made his head appear smaller than it actually was. He had a strong jawline with a face that could be described as 'rough but handsome' with a few scars here and there, primarily across his nose and one going down the left side of his chin stood out the most. The strangest of all however, was that his ears were semi long and came to a slight point.

Camellia would have normally been screaming in joy as she would have assumed he was an elf due to them usually being depicted as a nice and gentle race, but neither did she notice them or be able to compare the skinny flamboyant and beautiful elves with this Brutish, rustic and overgrown man in front of her.

All of this, of course, led Camellia to almost pass out instantly from fear and shock. If she stood up next to him she'd look like a toddler!

"Good, your fever is gone it seems. Rest now."

'Is... is he being nice? He didn't fall for me or something right? No! snap out of it and think, he doesn't seem to be pitying me which is good. So he's either taking care of me because he's fallen for me, wants to use me for something or he wants to make me healthy enough to sell.'

'Aaaagghhh! This is too much! I haven't even been able to try and understand all the new information from my power up! Let alone get some of that promised base info from Miss Mona!'

<Did you call my dear? Oh my~ it seems you're quite hurt! I hope you recover soon~.>

DEMONESS!

<Don't worry though, your body heals quite quickly. After all, salamanders can fully regenerate from any wound so long as they survive it, even re-growing limbs is possible~!>

She really doesn't know what a salamander is... Well, I guess some can regrow their tails right? Not that I'd really know... CAUSE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SALAMANDERS!

Letting out a single tear and a forced smile from her internal struggle, she managed to catch the eyes of the large elf man. He walked over towards Camellia, wiped her tear then began to sit her up.

'What does he think he's doing?! Is he gonna kill me?? Wait...'

Finally being able to see her numb and unmovable body, she noticed something very important...

'WHY AM I NAKED?!'

Seeing her shocked and concerned face, the man pulled the heavy blanket, that was actually the heavy looking fur pelt he had worn as armour earlier up over her shoulders, covering her body.

'THAT'S NOT ENOUGH YOU PERVERT!! Aaahhh~ how will I be able to make a harem in the future if the women know I'm impure?!'

The Elf decided to ignore her slight whimper this time and instead picked up a bowl full of food that he had walked towards her with and crouched down beside her.

'Poison?! Now you want to poison me?! Seriously~ what's wrong with- ...

That smells really good though doesn't it...'

Noticing her obvious greed filled, drooling face, he took a scoop of the chunky soup and forced the pouting and stubborn pink haired child he was holding to eat it.

There was a really weird atmosphere going on here with two completely different views. There was the enraged, exhausted, overthinking, overreacting and injured loli who thought she was doomed to be taken advantage of for the rest of her life... Then the gentle elf man who simply thought he was taking care of an injured and sickly beast-kin infant...

Total yin and yang.

Of course all of that changed when the fire natio- Nono... all of that changed when she tasted the delicious food! (that he had to force her to eat...)

'So good!! Why didn't he tell me he was gonna give me such good food?'

<Jeez, is my daughter really this easy? All it takes is food? He's kind of old too no~?>

'Wha?! Easy?? It's not like that! I just like the food! This... this isn't that kind of book!'

<Ooh, breaking the fourth wall is quite fun~>

'Whatever, I've always been told I'm too easy to to trust people, so I don't see why I should stop now. Besides, thinking about it reasonably I was completely soaked from jumping into the river. I also can't move and am giving him a hard time so of course he'd have to do this to feed me. I still don't know why he's going this far for a random "kid" though...'

<You seem to rant a lot when you're tired, that's quite cute of you~>

'Ha?!'

"What is your name?"

The sudden raspy voice startled Camellia, making it hard for her to think about how to answer this simple sounding, yet delicate question. 'Do I tell him Camellia?' 'Should I make up a name for now?' 'Will Mona get mad at me for saying a fake name?' 'What if he asks for a last name?'

"No name? Haha, That is fine, you should not tell strangers your name anyways. Good job"

As he stood up laying her back down he ruffed up her hair and continued.

"Why were you alone in the forest? Were you running away from home? Or did you just get lost?"

She stayed laying down with a blank, yet confused expression.

'Oy... You trying to ask if I'm alone now? He reeks of suspicion! His food is good though...'

"It is okay if you do not want to answer that either. Do you need somewhere to stay? At least answer this question please, I can bring you to a shelter or orphanage at least this way."

'I won't be swayed by your sweet words!'

Never follow a stranger anywhere, unless your parents have advised you to kids and teens!

<His intentions seem innocent you know~? He isn't lying at least.>

'What, you have a built-in lying detector or something?'

<Mhm, I guess you could consider it that~>

...

That would have been good to know...

"Can you answer that please? I do not want a young girl walking around in this dangerous forest alone. I can happily take you to town instead."

While speaking he took out a whetstone and started sharpening the wide broadsword he had hilted on his right leg.

'Is he lying Miss Mona?'

<My~ getting dependent on me already~>

'Can... you please answer?'

Her face visibly contorted from having to bow to this demoness once again. Knowing it'll happen more in the future he couldn't help but shiver a bit.

<Hehe~, he isn't lying>

"Are you in pain?"

The rough man asked, noticing her constipated look.

"N- no, I'll follow you to town please."

"Good, thank you for accepting my offer."